


love is about sacrifices (or maybe compromise)

by Shitgetapen



Category: Pacific Rim (2013)
Genre: Gen, Hermann deals with it, M/M, Newt finds a cat
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-28
Updated: 2014-01-28
Packaged: 2018-01-10 09:36:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1158078
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Shitgetapen/pseuds/Shitgetapen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Hermann could have lived with a cat, but that thing Newt had brought home. Was a monster.</p>
<p>A story about how Newt loves his cat, which hates Hermann, who has to learn to love the cat because he loves Newt.</p>
            </blockquote>





	love is about sacrifices (or maybe compromise)

Hermann could have lived with a cat. Cats are generally indifferent, private animals. They sleep a lot and when they’re awake they mostly eat, they’re neat and clean, and very admirable hunters.

But that _thing_ Newt brought in was not a cat. It was a monster.

Newt had found it wandering outside their apartment and took pity on the thing, and Hermann stupidly let him keep it because he took pity on Newt. He was also half asleep when he was asked about it though, it was somewhere around 4am when Newt came in with it. So after a quick vet check up they found it wasn’t micro chipped, and had a clean bill of health (surprisingly). So they decided to keep it forever like the caring souls they are.

The cat resembled more a large ball of fluff which was dragged through a hedge backwards, dropped in several puddles on the way, and then ran into a wall at very high speeds, and if this actually had happened it would make sense why it looked so pissed off all the time. It also wasn’t the size of a normal cat, it was at least twice or three times the size, not even in fat or fluff, it was just a monster (which probably explained why Newt was so enamoured by it).

After about a week Hermann learnt that it was not neat. Or clean. Or private. Nor did it really sleep. It just watched, and it made its business to get into all of Hermann’s business. It was a good hunter though, however it wasn’t such a good not killer. It’s favourite game was catching mice, only not actually killing them, bringing them into the living room, watching everyone panic, them re-catching it, and eating it right there on the in front of them. Fun for all the family! (Best when guests are around).

At first it didn’t bring any of the problems into Hermann’s office (which he was beyond thankful for). But one day there it was, asleep on the desk chair. When he tried to pick it up it hissed and scratched his arm, so he decided ‘not worth it’. Other times it had sat in his paper tray, on that one piece of paper he wanted, in his briefcase (which he guesses is better than the time it mistook it as a litter tray). Sometimes when he was deep into a calculation on the chalkboard which took up a wall of his office, he’d reach for a new piece of chalk only to touch a fluffy head. The first time he jumped back about two feet and tried to reach under it, the cat then attempted to break Hermann’s hand and began scratching it into oblivion. Now he just pets it and stares despairingly at what his life’s become.

 “Why is it never in your office? It’s your cat.” He asks Newt after working perched on the edge of his chair all day.

“First of all Herm, it’s a she. Second, it’s our cat. And lastly I don’t think she likes the smell.”

“Wait. I never accepted co-ownership of that thing.”

“Tough.”

Hermann sulkily accepted his fate as demon cat co-owner, seeing no other way out while he was still in one piece. He fed it, pet it and let it out occasionally. But he did not like it. Newt on the other hand loved his duties as demon cat co-owner, though that was probably not the tern he’d use. He had never had a pet as a child, apart from some fish, so everything was a novelty.  He bought toys to be snootily ignored, the nice cat food to be wolfed down unappreciatively, he even bought a cat bed to be ignored in favour of a shoe box. He also had to be the one to let the cat back in after Hermann let it out again and ‘forgot’ about it, or didn’t hear the adorable meows which sounded like a squeaky door. The thing was endeared to him forever.

So trying to approach the problem with Newt was impossible.

“That cat stares at me.” Hermann said over breakfast one day. The cat was also at the table, and it was staring at Hermann with a glare that could’ve made Stacker shiver.

“You’re just being paranoid.” Newt said scratching the monster (who was called Katze) behind the ears, it began to rumble like a lorry that should probably go to a garage, apparently this counts as a purr.

“Oh really. What is it staring at right now?” Hermann looked up and stared right back at it, its eyes were an unholy shade of yellow and one was a little squinty and gunky (the vet said something about cat flu as a kitten, which did not stop it being really gross).

“She just wants your bacon. And, so, do, I.” He walked his fingers over with each pause, then reached over and took a piece of Hermann’s plate, breaking off a piece for Katze.

“If you wanted bacon I would have cooked you some, but _no_ you wanted to be healthy with your porridge. And oh my god Newton! Can you not let that thing sit on the table!”

“Fine!” Newt picked the cat up and dropped it on the floor with a thunk. “But I’ll have you know she’s going to be mad at you now.”

“I don’t think it’s going to make a difference.”  Hermann says thinking about how love is all about sacrifices, or compromises. Something like that.

They carried on with breakfast in their usual fashion (more arguing and food stealing, and pointing out new science articles and laughing at each other’s bad jokes). Katze came back and sat Hermann’s lap, digging her claws in with tender care, Hermann looks back with pleading horror at Newt, who just laughs and scratches her behind the ears again. Hermann pets her reluctantly for the rest of the time they waste before they decide to work.

When Newt get up to leave he picks up the cat and kisses it on its forehead, and as soon as he plants his lips on its fluffy head she begins to wriggle furiously until Newt’s forced to put her on the floor. Hermann can’t remember the last time he laughed this hard. Newt tries to suppress his smile, “don’t you laugh, it’s you next.”

“As long as you don’t try to pick me up.”

“Fine.”

They waste more time making out like teenagers, until Newts phone buzzes furiously forcing him to leave in a flurry of insults about making him late, and Hermann’s left alone. Well alone with the cat. He fills the bowl and let’s her out as soon as he can, so he can work in peace.

After a few months Katze has fallen naturally into their life. It’s not even as bad when they’re making out on the sofa anymore, at least it’s not so much of a shock when one of them looks up and she’s watching or she tries to get attention by jumping onto one of them, or licking their hand , or gentle to violent tapping. Now she usually just sleeps. But Hermann still thanks whatever God is put there for Newt not letting her in the bedroom.

And as much as she’s a monster who stares a lot, can’t keep her food in her bowl, sleeps in the worst places, who prefers Newt, and strives to annoy cuddles out of Hermann.  Hermann has learnt that she’s not all bad, she actually has a lot of endearing quirks. Like how she winks when her eye gunk gets too gunky, (not so nice when it’s your turn to wipe it out, but still very endearing when it’s not), she’s scared of lightning and moths, she dribbles when she’s tired (‘she’s like you!’ Newt takes delight in saying before he’s poked in the ribs), the way she taps at the door if she wants to be let in or out (not so cute in the middle of the night when you think you’re being robbed). All in all Hermann has come to accept the cat, for all its annoyances.

One night on the sofa watching a marathon of old films with Newt’s legs sprawled across Hermann’s lap. Hermann is just leaning on Newt’s shoulder with one arm round him. Katze is between them, tucked behind one of Newt’s legs like a giant rumbling space heater. Both were petting her until their hands bashed and they just ended up holding hands on the cat. Hermann sighs, thinking about how he’s living with things he initially hated which he was forced against his will to like, and if his life has some destructive pattern he should really know about (he’s doesn’t think the movies are very good either).

“She’s a lot like you.” Hermann says in a particularly dull part of the movie

“What do you expect, she’s my baby. Now shoosh shoosh shoosh! The best part is coming up!”

Hermann rolled his eyes, lifting their hands to press a kiss to the back of Newt’s hand. Yep, now he’s sure love was definitely about sacrifices (or maybe it was compromise). But it was worth it if you get times like this.

**Author's Note:**

> I want this cat.


End file.
